Approximately 16 people die each week in Hawaii from injuries. These injuries might occur from car accidents, medical procedures, or many other accidents. Encountering injuries from any of these events can change your life, so you might wonder how to proceed if you have life-changing injuries from a car accident. The best thing to do is to hire a personal injury lawyer.
After all, you’ll need help settling your case. Here is a guide to help you learn why you need to hire a personal injury lawyer and how they’ll help you with your situation.
Insurance Companies Try to Settle Quickly
Within days of your accident, you’ll start receiving phone calls from the insurance company handling the claim. If someone else caused the accident, the calls would likely come from their insurance company.
Insurance companies like to settle their claims quickly, as they can settle for lower amounts. Their goal is to pay the lowest amount possible, as settling claims requires the insurance companies to part with money.
You might be tempted to accept an offer the insurance company offers, especially if it seems higher than you expected. However, you’re probably entitled to more money than their offer amount.
As a result, you’ll need a lawyer to help you settle your case. One of the top benefits of a personal injury lawyer is their assistance with settling claims for higher amounts.
You don’t have to hire a lawyer immediately, but you should know that you’ll lose your ability to hire one if you settle with the insurance company right away.
Therefore, you should avoid agreeing to an amount the insurance company offers until you talk to a lawyer or hire one.
A Personal Injury Lawyer Explains Your Rights
Secondly, when you hire a personal injury lawyer, you’ll have a legal expert available to answer your questions. The lawyer will listen to your story and investigate the case and evidence.
Next, the lawyer will explain your rights. Unfortunately, most car accident victims don’t know their rights until they discuss their cases with a lawyer.
As a result, many victims lose money from agreeing to settlements prematurely.
When someone causes a car accident that causes leaves you injured, the lawyer might begin by determining why the accident occurred. For example, was the other driver texting or driving under the influence?
Secondly, the lawyer can help you understand the process of settling a car accident case. They’ll tell you the steps, hurdles, and potential timeframe. Without a lawyer, you’ll be left scrambling to figure this out alone.
They’ll Negotiate for You
One challenge many people face when settling car accident claims is negotiating. Negotiating is hard and intimidating, and it’s not something many feel confident doing.
Fortunately, you won’t have to answer any more calls from insurance companies or anyone else related to the accident. Instead, your lawyer handles these calls and conversations.
Of course, you’ll want to look for the best personal injury lawyer, as the best one offers more negotiation experience for car accident cases.
If you’ve never been through a personal injury case, you might not understand what the negotiations involve or why this step is necessary. However, you’ll quickly learn once you start settling a case.
Negotiating is the process of reaching a settlement agreement with the insurance company, and it’s not a cut-and-dry event. Instead, it takes work, time, and effort.
Your lawyer might begin by gathering evidence relating to your injuries. Next, the lawyer will evaluate the monetary needs for the injuries and other damages, such as lost wages.
Finally, your lawyer will attempt to settle for the highest dollar amount possible. Of course, the insurance company will counter the offer, and the negotiations might go back and forth for a while.
Your lawyer might suggest filing a lawsuit if you can’t reach a fair settlement. However, most attorneys can settle cases outside of court, eliminating the need to go to court before a judge or jury.
Your Lawyer Helps You Prove Your Case
Another perk of hiring the best local personal injury lawyer is the help they provide with proving your case. Proving some cases might be simple, but others might prove more difficult.
For example, your lawyer might need to acquire video footage of the accident scene during the time the accident occurred. By viewing this footage, the lawyer might gather the evidence needed to prove fault.
Imagine if you had to attempt to obtain this video footage. You might not know where to begin but you’d have a difficult time proving your case without it.
Lawyers take their time when researching and investigating cases, as this is how they gather enough evidence to win.
They Fight for Current and Future Damages
Finally, you need a lawyer to help you fight for current and future damages. You might have a stack of medical bills and receipts for repairing your car, but do you know how much your future medical bills will cost?
Additionally, do you understand the other monetary effects you’ll experience in the future from your car accident injuries? And have you considered the mental and emotional impact of the incident?
Your lawyer might talk to you about maximum medical improvement (MMI), which refers to major injuries with lifelong effects. MMI is a point where you’re recovered from your injuries as much as possible.
Experienced personal injury lawyers know how to calculate these things and will fight to ensure you receive enough compensation to cover all your losses.
Hire the Best Personal Injury Law Firm for Help
As you can see, hiring a personal injury lawyer is vital when settling a car accident case. Your lawyer can assist with every step, ensuring you receive enough compensation for your damages.
Contact us at Cummings Law in Hawaii for assistance with your case. We can review your case and give you advice about your situation, rights, and potential outcome.
